DENVER - Patrick Roy returned to the Colorado Avalanche to restore the glory years he helped forge, and hes enjoying the ride with a young team playing at a high level. Nick Holden scored two goals, Ryan OReilly had a goal and an assist and the Avalanche rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 on Sunday night. Semyon Varlamov stopped 31 shots and Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie also scored for the Avalanche, who have won two straight. Roy helped lead Colorado to two Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001 as the goaltender with a dynamic offence in front of him. Now as the coach, hes bringing back memories of that era. "You ask me what reminds me of the Avalanche of the past, thats the type of hockey we were playing," he said. "And thats the way were playing right now." Those championship teams also featured goal-scoring defencemen, something lacking from last years squad. Colorados blue-liners had just five goals in 48 games a year ago. The Avalanche got four goals from its defence Sunday, including Johnsons first in his return from a two-game suspension for a slash on New York Islanders centre Frans Nielsen three weeks ago. "Its tough sitting out, and to be able to come back and contribute and help the team win is fun," he said. Johnson scored the go-ahead goal at 16:05 of the third when he pinched in to steal the puck and then sent a low shot past 6-foot-7 goalie Ben Bishop from along the boards. "I know (Bishop) from St. Louis, and I shot at him a lot," Johnson said. "Hes obviously a big guy and he doesnt give you a lot of room. Sometimes, big guys like that, you throw it at their feet and they dont see it." Nate Thompson had two goals, Tom Pyatt also scored and Bishop finished with 29 saves for the Lightning, who had four penalties in the last 21:28 of the game. "The penalties killed us," centre Alex Killorn said. "Six minutes where we didnt play in their zone." Holden tied it with a power-play goal at 5:12 of the third. It was Colorados sixth power-play goal in the past three games. Holden notched his second two-goal game when he scored into an empty net with 53 seconds remaining. Paul Stastny added another with 6.3 seconds left. "This is a tough one," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Tied game with under five minutes to go. I thought we were getting points from this one. We let them slip out of our hands." Thompson has eight goals, and four of them have come in a pair of two-goal games. He got his first one Sunday when he beat Varlamov on the short side 6:40 into the second period to tie it at 2. Later in the period, he sent a wrister at Varlamov that settled in the crease, and then he skated through to knock it in at 17:37. The Lightning missed an opportunity to move into second place in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference after Colorados late-game eruption. "I think were going through a little bit of a rough patch," Thompson said. "A couple breakdowns there at the end and they end up in the back of the net, unfortunately." Colorado stayed within three points of St. Louis in the Central Division with the win. The Blues beat Phoenix on Sunday. The game was scoreless for most of the first period despite plenty of chances. Lightning centre Vladislav Namestnikov had two of them and Colorado centre Matt Duchene was stopped on a breakaway. Tampa Bay finally cashed in when Pyatt scored at 16:49 of the first. Barrie tied it 30 seconds later with a shot between Bishops legs, and OReilly gave Colorado a 2-1 lead with his 23rd of the season 1:42 later. NOTES: Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon finished with two assists. ... Tampa Bay C Valtteri Filppula missed his fourth straight game with a non-displaced fracture in his right ankle. ... MacKinnon extended his points streak to 11 games. Its the longest streak by a rookie since Stastny had one of 20 games during the 2006-07 season. . There is no argument that the line of Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Thomas Vanek was one of the hottest in the NHL leading into the post-season, and they did combine for three goals and seven points, but it was the depth of all four lines that helped propel Montreal. . A wide-eyed 18-year-old visiting North America for only the second time in his young life, Caboclo immediately noticed the "big tower" his new home is best known for.
http://www.bullsofficialsshop.com/kids- ... ls-jersey/. The Red Sox maintained a share of the AL wild-card lead Tuesday night, using four home runs to beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 and set up a dramatic conclusion to the regular season. The skidding Red Sox were 6-19 this month before rebounding to edge the last-place Orioles. . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. . -- In the stadium program sold at the Miami Dolphins game on Halloween, Richie Incognito was asked whos the easiest teammate to scare.BUFFALO, N.Y. - The gloves are off in Buffalo now that coach Ted Nolans patience has run out waiting for his lethargic Sabres to start showing signs of a spark.Nolan expressed his frustrations, including using a profanity in yelling at his team to wake ... up, while putting his players through a grueling 90-minute practice Wednesday.Now is the time where taking it easy is over now, Nolan said, noting that he had purposefully given the Sabres a 10-game grace period. Weve got to go work. Ill take full responsibility for that. Maybe I didnt push them hard enough. But todays the day we have to start.The Sabres (2-8) could use the extra work a day after sleepwalking through a 4-0 loss at Toronto. Buffalo managed a franchise-worst 10 shots and was shut out for the fourth time in six games.The lack of effort is what ate at Nolan, particularly after Buffalo was rested and coming off its best game, a 2-1 win at San Jose on Saturday afternoon.Its very disturbing, Nolan said of his teams performance. Its mind-baffling.The expectations were already low in Buffalo entering this year. The rebuilding Sabres were coming off a season in which they finished last in the standings, lost a franchise-record 51 times and set a post-NHL-expansion era low by scoring 150 goals.There are signs they could be even worse this year.Not including shootouts, Buffalo has scored just 10 goals. According to STATS, thats tied for the fourth fewest through the first 10 games of a season in NHL history, and fewest since the Chicago Blackhawks scored that many in 1936-37.ddddddddddddolan isnt surprised by how low the Sabres offence has sunk.If we play the way we played last night, Im quite sure well break some more of those records, he said. If youre not going to shoot, youre not going to score. Its pure and simple as that. ... You can draw up all the fancy game plays that you want, but the want has to be there.Tyler Ennis leads Buffalo with three goals, while Zemgus Girgensons and Marcus Foligno have two each.Matt Moulson, Drew Stafford and Cody Hodgson, who combined for 58 goals last season, have a goal and seven assists between them.Moulson, a three-time 30-goal-scorer, had a difficult time coming up with a solution for Buffalos offensive woes.If it was an easy fix, it would be fixed by now, he said.Nolan is taking matters into his own hands by juggling the Sabres lines for Buffalos home game against Boston on Thursday.The biggest switch involves Hodgson being demoted to the fourth line. And Nolan acknowledged hes toying with the thought of having Hodgson sit out a game by saying: Hes pretty close to there, too.NOTES: The Sabres are slightly ahead of last years record, when they got off to a 1-8-1 start. ... Rookie first-round draft pick C Sam Reinhart is set to play against Boston. That will mark his ninth game, meaning the Sabres have to determine whether to return Reinhart to his Canadian Junior team in Kootenay, British Columbia, or have his rookie contract automatically kick in with his 10th NHL game. ... Nolan said G Jhonas Enroth will start against Boston. ' ' '
